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My question is whether or not passive rules apply while a unit is in reserve.

For example: Would a Tau Crisis Suit with a Puretide Engram Neurochip be able to decide what special rule he has at the beginning of each turn, even while in reserves, thus allowing him to come onto the board with said rule?

This has some unique implications within the game, and I can not actually find anything that would deny it. The only thing would be that it's not on the board, but that does not necessarily mean it's not part of the larger game.

I'd have to say no, but that is only because of how other games work with such scenarios, and it makes things work a little better. Example would be in Heroclix, if I had a character somehow start outside the game, he is for all tense and purposes, NOT a part of the game until he hits the battlefield. So if he had any abilities that would trigger at the beginning of my turn, they do not trigger until he is on the map, and officially a part of the battle.

Granted, this is my opinion, and I'm not 100% sure in 40k's case.

Necroes wrote:
My question is whether or not passive rules apply while a unit is in reserve.

For example: Would a Tau Crisis Suit with a Puretide Engram Neurochip be able to decide what special rule he has at the beginning of each turn, even while in reserves, thus allowing him to come onto the board with said rule?

This has some unique implications within the game, and I can not actually find anything that would deny it. The only thing would be that it's not on the board, but that does not necessarily mean it's not part of the larger game.

This is a highly debated topic. I side with the 'you can' camp because of how similar the PEN is to Logan Grimnar's "The High King" special rule. Logan's ability (that is really similar to the PEN) has been FAQ'd to show that it works the turn he arrives from reserves.

I don't believe any passive rule that has been questioned has been FAQed to not work when the model is in reserve.

Necroes wrote:
My question is whether or not passive rules apply while a unit is in reserve.

For example: Would a Tau Crisis Suit with a Puretide Engram Neurochip be able to decide what special rule he has at the beginning of each turn, even while in reserves, thus allowing him to come onto the board with said rule?

This has some unique implications within the game, and I can not actually find anything that would deny it. The only thing would be that it's not on the board, but that does not necessarily mean it's not part of the larger game.

The general rule is no.

A unit cannot charge, or use any abilities or special rules that must be used at the start of the turn, in the turn it arrives from Reserve.

If they could do what you said, this particular rule would be useless. As was pointed out, there was a FAQ in 6th that allowed Logan to do it so it has been debated.

Fragile,
Then it is a "good" thing the Puretide Engram Neurochip does not contain the Start of the Turn terminology and that 7the Edition makes a difference between Start of Turn and Start of Movement Phase terminology.
Personally, I hate that Restriction because it is so poorly written and never was easily applied even in previous Editions. For example, there where only a handful of Special Abilities using the Start of Turn terminology and they where found in pre-6th Edition codex's should I be remembering correctly. If it wasn't for a technically about the Timeline in 6th Edition, we could argue that they where the same point and that made the terms interchangeable. Now that we have a Time-line that prevents the two from being interchangeable, this raises all sorts of problems when trying to apply a Restriction to Special Rules which use the different terminologies.

Personally I do not like using the Puretide Engram Neurochip as an example to use in these scenarios to being with, as they have several concerns when it comes to interacting with the above Restriction and always have. The fact the player is making a choice for which Special Rule to have access to at a different point in the Timeline threw all sorts of questions into the equation to begin with. In the long run, there are far more reasonable and less confusion scenarios that can be utilized to try and answer this question. Personally, I question the usability of things like Deep-Stroke, Outflanking and other Rules which clearly function from Reserve.